Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Water, water, everywhere!

We have had a few water themed events here over the past couple of weeks! Of course, there are the floods and storms of the past weeks, we were fine here, thank goodness, didn't even lose power! Just near us some roads were out - Dave took some shots of the flooding nearby (this was on Thursday last week):



We had our watertank installed (just after the big storm the weekend before last, in time to collect rain all last week!). It's a 5000l tank and is plumbed to the toilet. We're also going to use some of this water for the vege garden. Not that we've needed to water the garden in a couple of weeks with all the rain! We got a great deal on the tank, installation and all for the price of the rebates! Yay!


And, finally, we all went swimming in the spa for the first time this season. This was Lolly's first ever swim in a pool! She loved it! Snail is a total waterbaby and loves to swim, so was very happy to hop in and play. Smash helped!


In an unrelated photo op - here is Lolly investigationing Pippin our dog. Needless to say, Pippi is a very loving creature who is great with kids!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Lolly at 8 months!

Lolly is 8 months!

Taking an idea from a lovely blog an online friend of mine has – From Boob and Beyond – I thought I would write about what Lolly is like at 8 months of age, the grand old age of which she has reached today! Here is Lolly at 5 days old.


And here she is on Saturday, two days ago.


Lolly is a happy, smiling, grinning, laughing soul. She is very amused by the world in general, especially funny faces, noises, the pets, the Dadda, and Smash. She finds life to be delightful. She loves to be tickled! Tickling causes squeals of delight, and anticipation of delight. Lolly getting tickled by the Dadda:

She loves to grab everyone's hair, Snail is not a fan of this!

Lolly is thoughtful, and loves to investigate things. She uses her hands, she points at things, practising with her index finger. She has a wonderful thinking face. Here, she is investigationing the camera.


Her current interests include Mr Fish, the inside tubes off toilet and paper towel rolls, and tags of all kinds.

She has a new interest in board books, and likes to flap the pages back and forth (and eat the corners, too). Some of her favourite things to play with are an old remote for a TV we don't own anymore, and a wireless Mac keyboard with no batteries. She pokes the keys and bangs other toys on it, and particularly enjoys doing this while I have the other (working) keyboard on my lap! She likes noises made by toys clicked together. She loves to sit with toys all around her and play, so long as she can see the mumma at all times!

I wanna change the channel Mumma!


She is a keen conversationalist, and loves to talk. She chats a lot, and makes fun blah blah noises, and general burbles, and funny sounds on my shoulder or her own arms. Sometimes she mimics our sounds, and we suspect she'll be saying 'dadda' in no time! She recently learnt to click her tongue, and likes to do that with us. She likes music and will burble along to songs.

She enjoys food, even if only in little bits so far as she is breastfed.


Her favourites include banana, potato, apple pieces, and rusks. She loves to sip from cups, we give her tiny sips of water in a cup to play with sometimes, she really enjoys that.


Lolly is very social, and enjoys all the friends we go to see. She likes to come shopping with me, she will happily sit in the sling for ages just looking at the shops, people, noises and lights. She likes to sit on my knee for a coffee (the coffee is for me, LOL) at cafes. She naps in the car, but sometimes doesn't like that we live a little far out and the car trips can be long. She loves to see Nanna and Granddad. But sometimes other people are better viewed from my arms!

Bath-time with Mumma, Dadda, or both, and/or Snail is good fun! Splashing and kicking is great and so is sitting on a lap and watching the water from the tap on her hands. There is a bath toy turtle that has a good head for sucking on, and washers taste good too.

She has all her day sleeps in Mumma's arms, unless we are in the car. She goes to sleep quite late at night, and likes to sleep for 10 or more hours overnight next to her Mum. Many feeds, but still, we both get a lot of sleep! Although I'll add the disclaimer for this morning, she woke up before 6am, we went back to bed at 7.30, but Mumma and bub were up at 8 when the plumber came to fit our water tank. Sigh. Good for the watertank, bad for bub and I. We are somewhat tired and a little grumpy!

This is a little glimpse of Lolly-grub at 8 months old. She is a joy, and has brought great happiness to my life. Thank you, Lolly.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Weather and other meanderings


Yesterday, Lolly and I were driving in to a local shopping centre for the sling meet, and it was the most beautiful day, one of those Australian spring/summer days where the sky is that perfect blue colour, and everything (due to the recent rain in these parts) is so green it needs to be in capital letters - GREEN! It is HOT as all get out, but gorgeous too. Here is our back yard, or the tree tops of a bit of the bush out the back, anyway.



We sling meet-ed away, and then came home to help the Dadda dig a hole. Our rainwater tank is being installed tomorrow, and it needs a bed of stuff to sit on. D was going to dig a trench for the run-off pipe, but was too overcome with a cold to bother. We're hoping the installation people will do it!

Here is said bed of stuff, with Dave cutting down the metal pole of the washing line, behind a magnificent looking Bajak. Not bad for a dog who is 16 and a half!


So here are some more shots... I have been experimenting with the video camera (that also takes stills, obviously!), and can get some okay shots, but it is frustrating as it focusses where it likes and won't do what I want it too. Just more amunition in my campaign to get a new digital SLR, since I can't tolerate the slowness and lack of instant gratification of the regular SLR anymore, despite many of the shots still being good!



Here is one of me! I don't mind it, and I usually hate photos of myself...


Today, D, Lolly and I went into Southbank for a walk with the babywearing group. It is International Baby-wearing Week and this was one of the festivities. It was VERY hot (again with the capitals!) and Lolly was flushed and bothered. Dave and I are both a bit low with colds, so were a little anti-social. Still, glad we went.

This afternoon it stormed most spectacularly here, we took Lolly outside for the prelude, lots of wind and spots of rain, we ran for the entry-way as the big deluge began! She loved it all! Legs going miles an hour, smiling and laughing at the sky, maybe it was the positive ions! Here is a not so great shot of the rain over the valley as seen from our side yard. We stood out for ages, Lolly really liked it, at least until it was time for booby and a nap :-).

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Smash is 13!

Today is Smash's birthday - we can't quite believe he is 13 years old today!!! Happy birthday Smash!! At 13, Smash is an amazing person, funny, wise, (mostly) thoughtful ;-), creative, loves his sisters, and cooks a mean dinner!

Here is an extremely foolish photo of Smash from a couple of weeks ago (just in case he was feeling all mature and wise)...


ps - Lolly is cute!


pps - Snail is also cute!!